Forum –
Well it’s all happening.
Administrator Dick Persson has gone and IPART has given the Council a 15 per cent rate increase, but only for three years.
We now have a new Administrator, Mr Rik Hart, and a new CEO, Mr David Farmer.
While Minister Shelley Hancock has fobbed off our petition for a judicial enquiry she has appointed Roslyn McCulloch to head a public Inquiry which is expected to take a year to report.
We will also be called to the polls in September to decide if we would like fewer councillors and wards.
I am not real sure why we need an Administrator and a CEO, but I am sure there is a good reason somewhere.
Mr Couch, Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast, told Parliament that a public inquiry was infinitely preferable as such a form of inquiry prevented our sacked councillors from returning.
The fact that there won’t be an election in September is another very good reason for that not happening.
The biggest problem I have is the reduction in the number of wards and councillors.
Mr Persson, before riding off into the sunset, put the wheels in motion based on the way the Council meetings had been conducted over the past few years.
I would suggest that the way the previous councillors performed was a reflection on the Mayor and the councillors themselves and not the system.
Perhaps any reductions might be counter-productive.
Way back in the good old days the Peninsula had its own Council.
Hence the Council Chambers near Peninsula Plaza.
We were amalgamated with a new and much larger Council at Gosford and our troubles began.
Since that time, we have been treated like poor relations and have never received our fair share of any monies being spent on infrastructure, roads, kerb and guttering, drainage and the myriad other things Council is responsible for.
You only have to have a drive around to see the extent of the backlog of works needing to be done.
How will we fare when we are a still smaller part of a bigger ward?
You know as well as I do; we will continue to be used as a milch cow while ever more larger and larger developments are approved increasing Council’s revenue while our amenities get worse and worse.
Mr Persson recommends reducing our councillors from 15 to 9 in three super wards.
Who do you think will be elected under this suggested plan?
Party hacks and nobody else.
How could any independent, hoping to truly represent us, ever be able to run a campaign needing two or three hundred helpers?
Before you even look at the logistics of manning 20 or 30 booths for 12 hours on polling day, where will he or she get volunteers for letter-boxing, pre-poll booths and so it goes on.
This proposal, if passed, will be the death of the fair dinkum little bloke with his community at heart trying to do the things that we want and not just toeing the party line.
My only hope is that, in the meanwhile, one of these two new gentlemen knows the proper way to more permanently mend potholes and starts somewhere near here.
Email, May 17
Laurie Powell, Woy Woy